NATURE COLUMN: Bill Cawley

I SAW a buzzard from our garden a few weeks ago.

It was a fine day and the bird was taking full advantage to soar high on a warm therm.

For its position I would say it was flying high above Abbey Green Road and perhaps I saw the same bird as we approached a wood close to the Abbey pub last week on another bright day.

Their cry carries some distance and on hearing I craned my neck upwards to see it. I am rarely disappointed.

You can see them in many different places around Leek. I saw a pair in February 2018 on another clear day although there was about 20 degrees Celsius difference in temperature between the two sightings.

I was in Cheddleton Heath Road and the birds were circling a wood looking to pick out a rabbit out in the snowy landscape.

It is one of the great surprises in ornithology to see how common they have become. I even saw a buzzard one day as I walked down Burton Street the plaintive, far-carrying pee-yow call used in aerial displays alerted my attention and I looked up to see one being harried by a pair of carrion crows.

Buzzards have been known to take a young carrion crow which is probably why there was a commotion.

I first saw the hawk in February 1985 when walking with a friend and his father near Sgùrr Mhòr in Western Ross. I had never seen a buzzard before and tried to photograph it against the flagstone on which it was perched, but its camouflage was perfect and it was difficult to pick out where bird ended and rock began.

Nowadays it is possible to see this hawk flying above the town and it is not necessary to journey to the remote highlands of Scotland.

The buzzard population has increased by more than 600% since the 1960s. It is estimated that there are now around 80,000 pairs and they are our most common raptor.

It has been savagely persecuted in the past by gamekeepers and some still do.

The buzzard is a large bird; a female may weigh 1kg and have a wingspan of 120cm , and it forms an impressive sight.

In Scotland, the buzzard has long been touted ‘the tourist eagle,’ as people impressed by the bulk of this bird of prey sitting on a telegraph pole mistakenly believe they are looking at something far larger – the golden eagle.

The aerial displays of both male and female birds at this time can be spectacular.

They repeatedly climb and stoop, before looping on folded wings as they undulate like giant woodpeckers.

Occasionally, two birds will lock talons and tumble toward the earth in a game of aerial dare.

It is an extraordinary sight as they spin earthwards further and faster before breaking contact and riding away on broad wings.